Peggy J. Cole 1930 - 2005

School district aide offered guidance, compassion

As an administrative assistant for a Palatine-based school district, Peggy J. Cole often was the first contact for parents who sought services for their special-needs children.

With gentleness and compassion, Mrs. Cole guided them in the right direction.

"When I think of Peggy, I think of her as helping people," said Lorita Langley, former assistant superintendent for special services at Community Consolidated School District 15. "She was very good at anticipating [parents' and students'] needs and concerns."

And if there was an issue she could not address, Mrs. Cole went out of her way to seek a solution, said Marge Weld, a former secretary to the school superintendent.

"She was certainly in the right area of service because she understood the need for attention to the special needs of the children and their parents," Weld said.

Mrs. Cole, 75, of Arlington Heights, who had lived in Rolling Meadows for 51 years, died Monday, Oct. 3, of complications related to hepatitis C in the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights.

Her son is actor Gary Cole, who appears in the show "Wanted" on the TNT network and was on "The West Wing" on NBC and in the movie "Office Space."

At work, Mrs. Cole became a champion of working mothers, said Langley, her supervisor.

"We had many women who came back into office work after being home taking care of their children, and they were out of that kind of setting for a while and many of them were apprehensive," Langley said. "Peggy was wonderful in supporting them and helping them rebuild their confidence."

As her own children grew, Mrs. Cole was their strongest supporter, said her daughter, Nancy Polancich. When her son decided to become an actor, she backed him through his highs and lows.

"She lived through all his early days when he was sleeping on floors and in roach-infested apartments," Polancich said. "I think [my parents] saw that he was very talented."

Born in South Bend, Ind., Mrs. Cole moved with her family to Chicago, then to Park Ridge. She graduated from Maine East High School and attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but returned to Chicago to finish her education at a business school.

In 1951, she married her husband, Robert, whom she had known since grade school. She worked at McGraw-Hill until her daughter was born in 1954, the same year the family moved to Rolling Meadows.

The couple became charter members of Bethel Lutheran Church in Palatine, and Mrs. Cole was the first president of the women's guild and was active in building the congregation, her husband said.

"She was an easy person to get along with," her husband said. "She was a dedicated person, and anything she took on, things at church and at school, she took on those responsibilities personally."

Mrs. Cole retired from the school district in 1990.

Other survivors include three grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Meadows Funeral Home, 8615 Kirchoff Rd., Rolling Meadows, and from 10 a.m. Friday until an 11 a.m. service at Bethel Lutheran Church, 3839 W. Frontage Rd., Palatine.